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Coach says Eagles play their best game on night Gwynn Park struggles to score
Coach says Eagles play their best game on night Gwynn Park struggles to score
Douglass High School’s Cameron Hayes (center) looks to shoot between Aaron Parker (left) and Isaiah Miles of host Gwynn Park during Friday’s game in Brandywine.
Friday’s Prince George’s County 3A/2A/1A League boys basketball game between rivals Gwynn Park and Douglass in Brandywine had all the makings of a classic regular-season meeting. The Yellow Jackets’ gymnasium was packed to capacity — it was standing room only — as fans piled in to watch the two historically evenly-matched teams face off. Even the local radio station, 93.9 WKYS was on hand for what had been deemed Game of the Week.
Instead, on a day when the Eagles put the whole package together in what coach Tyrone Massenburg called his team’s best overall performance of the season, Gwynn Park put forth its worst effort of the winter and the result was an anticlimactic 80-42 victory in favor of the visitor, Douglass.
Friday, for the ninth game in a row, at least 10 Eagles (7-2) were involved in scoring. Against Gwynn Park 14 total players scored at least one point, 10 of them tallied four or more points. Such balance and depth leads to hugely productive practices, Massenburg said, and it’s paying dividends on game days. Cameron Hayes led the team with a game-high 15 and Marquel Harris and Javaughn Talley added 10 and nine points, respectively.
“This is a rivalry game for us, our kids just came out to play [Friday night],” Massenburg said. “We drive our kids very hard every day in practice, they compete with each other. Our bench is very good, we always play a lot of players so our intensity in practice is similar to what we see in games. We always play a lot of players, that’s why the kids are so familiar with game situations. No matter who is out on the floor, we have confidence in them.”
For the second straight game Gwynn Park (4-5) shot at a very low percentage and when the Yellow Jackets aren’t scoring, they struggle in all aspects of the game, coach Mike Glick said. But Massenburg said he has no doubt Gwynn Park will rebound — and the two will meet again before the season’s end — and Glick said his team’s reaction to such a lopsided loss will be very telling.
“The one thing a loss like this can do is either tear you apart or bring you together,” Glick said. “We’ve got to have this bring us together. We’ll see what happens to the kids. It’s a long season and we’ve got to get better. Right now they’re the better team. We’ve got to focus on getting better and we have six, seven weeks to do that.”
Friday’s game was competitive for about 90 seconds at which point Douglass led, 3-2. The Eagles pulled ahead, 11-2, by the end of the first quarter and led by as much as 20 points in the second before heading to the locker room with a 34-20 advantage.
Gwynn Park cleaned up its game toward in the latter stages of the first half to keep a second-half comeback in the realm of possibility but Douglass’ 6-0 run to start the third quarter all but completely erased any hopes of that.
By the end of the third quarter the Eagles were up, 59-29, with everything going their way and nothing going in favor of Gwynn Park. With their perimeter shooting failing them, the Yellow Jackets attacked the glass and got to the free throw line 32 times but only converted 19 of those chances. Meanwhile Douglass shot 33 for 41 from the foul line. The Eagles also dominated the boards to limit Gwynn Park’s second and third chances.
“[Douglass] is playing hard and playing as one,” said Anthony Byrd, who Massenburg said helped set the tone Friday. “When we play defense, we play team defense, help defense. We play as a family. We want to make sure we let people know that we feel as though we’re the No. 1 team in the state.”
jbeekman@gazette.net
Douglass 80, Gwynn Park 42
Douglass (7-2) 11 23 25 21 — 80
Gwynn Park (4-5) 2 18 8 14 — 42
Douglass — Cameron Haynes 16, Marquel Harris 10, Javaughn Talley 9, Donald Carey 7, Kyle Green 7, Lawrence Thompson 6, Zion Cousins 5, Trevor Johnson 5, Anthony Byrd 4, Asante Gadson 4, Andrew Brown 2, Demarius Pitts 2.
Gwynn Park — Isaiah Miles 9, Aaron Parker 9, Desha Curtis 8, Marlon White 6, Evan Crump 4, Kollin Mitchell 4, Artie Wills 2.
